Friday, June 1, 2012

Thank you, Josie and Fred for your "reply to all" responses. Now, this is what I call a dialog.

Fred wrote (to me instead of "reply to all"):
"I cannot speak from experience, and I hit a lot of ports!!! I have known
a lot of sailors with casual hook ups, some with bad memories for them.

I have to agree with Richard, I think he thinks the truth"

Y to Jack: Yeah, Richard is very truthful. Sometimes it's scary.

Gayle to Y:

"So on which of these sacred texts do you base your beliefs? Does
each person get to define what is sacred Scripture to himself/herself?
Do we get to say, "I accept this section of the text, but I reject that
one?" How do we know which parts are sacred? What is the defining criteria for accepting one part as sacred but not another?"

Y to Gayle:
I don't know the answers. My problem is with people who
think that any one person or group of people has the absolute answers
for all peoples, in all places, and all times.

The
reason I began this blog is that I am hoping to hear more of the stories
of the sacred in the lives of those who may never have been exposed to
the religious traditions and scriptures to which I have been exposed.

Gayle to Y:
I've been thinking about this. Here's my perspective. If someone
asked who Rachel (Ys daughter) is, it would depend upon who was
answering the question. Her daughters would say, "She's my mother;" her
husband would say, "She's my wife;" her parents would say, "she's our
daughter;" her friends would say, "She's our friend." Everyone would
know her from a different perspective, depending upon their relationship
to her. The question is, What would Rachel say about herself? She
would not deny any of the perspectives given; she would acknowledge all
of them -- but she might want to add her own perspective about who she
is.

And the perspective that would most closely match her own words
would probably be that of her friends, or at least of those who want
only to enjoy her for who she is, not those who want something from
her. They want to bask in her light, her warmth, her funniness, her
out-flowing enjoyment of life, her enjoyment of them. When her children
are grown, they will come to know her as more friend than mother;
hopefully, her husband will come to the same relationship, as will her
parents.

Jesus said, "I no longer call you 'servants,' but friends, but a
servant does not know what his master is doing." In the Greek, the word
he used here means both 'children' and 'servants,' for both had the
same role in Greek and Roman society.

So my point is this: we are all standing in different relationship
to God -- but if we really want to know who God is, we should at least
hear what He says about Himself and be in the relationship of "friend"
to Him. The only people who know who we are are our friends. I am so
fortunate in life that both my mother and I lived long enough for me to
know her as friend. That was a great gift -- but not one given to every
child. Hopefully, our relationship with God will grow to that level,
but it may not.

Y to Gayle:

I do believe that humankind is driven to search for the sacred, or the image and likeness of The Divine in ourselves, in others, and in all of creation. I don't believe that The Holy Spirit would be available to only certain people of certain times and places.

I would love to attend a retreat of Many Faiths where people spoke from their own life experiences without reference to what has been written by others, except as a particular scripture relates to their own experience. I would also like to have The Divine spoken of without gender specific names.

About Me

Since I was a little girl, I've had serious questions about what people said about God, faith, morals, and family. As a grandmother, I have never stopped asking the same questions. One Family, Many Faiths is a forum for sharing explorations of faith and values applied to our own families and other relationships in our lives.